A bolder immigration campaign: Arrests, protests mark movement

Carlos Spector, a Texas-based immigration attorney who specializes in political asylum cases, is critical of the so-called “Dream 30,” a group of Mexican nationals partly raised in the U.S. who sought to re-enter at the Texas border on Sept. 30 and applied for political asylum. They followed a smaller group, the “Dream 9,” who took the same approach last summer at the Nogales, Ariz., port of entry. That group included some students who self-deported and then re-entered to prove their point.

“I call them the undocumented wing of the Tea Party,” said Spector, whose clients fled Mexico fearing for their lives. One of his clients had his feet cut off by criminal gangs in Mexico. Others had relatives who were murdered. They have legitimate reasons to seek asylum and their cases are hurt by the Dream 30’s efforts, Spector said.

“(My clients) feel the Dreamers are cheapening the pain they have suffered and endured,” he said. “(The activists) never consulted with local groups and what their politics would do at the border. It’s what the Tea Party does. There’s no respect for tradition, for history”

Mohammad Abdollahian organizer with the National Immigration Youth Alliance, which sponsored the events, said he heard the same complaints from some in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“They said they’re not supporting us because we’re feeding into the Republican talking points (that the asylum requests are not legitimate,)” Abdollahi said. “But who are they to say these people don’t fear for their lives in Mexico?”

Among Orange County’s Latino leaders who have worked in previous immigration reform campaigns, the response to these newer tactics varies.

“That’s very audacious – one I would not recommend. It pushes the envelope a little bit too far,” said Amin David, a longtime Orange County leader and advocate in the Latino community, of the Dreamers who self-deport and then seek asylum. “Yet I stand in admiration, in respect of it. It proves to me the frustration level is at an all-time high.”

“I see it as a proud movement,” said Montez, of LULAC. “We finally got a generation that has corazon (heart) and a backbone. And I applaud what they’re doing.”

Chishti, of the Migration Policy Institute, said: “The interesting thing about this group is that they are very American in many ways. They have the confidence, the language, the brashness of every American kid. They think it’s their right in the American system, which they studied or lived through like all Americans.”

John Palacio, another longtime advocate in the Orange County Latino community, noted that today’s dynamics are dramatically different from 1986, the year Congress, under President Ronald Reagan, gave amnesty to nearly 3 million people living in the U.S. illegally.

“Today, there is less fear because you have a friendly Democratic president, a friendly Democratic Senate, combined with Latino influence at the state and national level. We have Latinos in the Legislature. Those dynamics today influence the tactics,” Palacio said. “The era is different.”

And there’s the Internet and social media as tools to mobilize and raise visibility, he said.

Jesus Cortez, 33, of Anaheim, is an Orange County Dream Team member and a recent college graduate. He said groups like his are “delivering more results than the mainstream organizations.”

“It seems like a lot of nonprofit organizations that are for immigrants are begging, whereas we are demanding,” Cortez said. “Begging doesn’t get them a lot of results.”

Orange County Dream Team members and Santa Ana College students Hairo Cortes, 21, from left, Dulce Saavedra, 20, and Ramon Campos, 22, have participated in acts of civil disobedience in Phoenix or San Franciso where protesters blocked buses filled with detainees or chained themselves to stop deportations. The acts are part of a growing trend among immigration reform advocates engaging in civil disobedience reminiscent of civil rights movement acts of the past. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Jesus Cortez, of Anaheim, and Kitzia Esteva, of San Francisco, on the megaphone, participate in an Oct. 17 event outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco. COURTESY OF ADRIAN GONZALEZ, ORANGE COUNTY DREAM TEAM
Reps. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., Keith Ellison, D-Minn., Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and John Lewis, D-Ga.,are among protestors outside of Capitol Hill during an immigration demonstration on Oct. 8. JOSE LUIS MAGANA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A group of undocumented youth temporarily blocked a bus set to deport immigrant detainees last October. Third from left is Hairo Cortes, a Santa Ana Community College student. COURTESY OF ADRIAN GONZALEZ, ORANGE COUNTY DREAM TEAM
A group of undocumented college students participate in a demonstration in San Francisco last month. The students were willing to put themselves at risk to deliver their message that deportations should be halted until Congress enacts federal immigration. The students include Edna Monroy, of Los Angeles, second from left; Dulce Saavedra, of Santa Ana, center, wearing blue; Ramon Campos, of Santa Ana; and Jesus Cortez, of Anaheim. ORANGE COUNTY DREAM TEAM, COURTESY OF ADRIAN GONZALEZ
Undocumented immigrants stage a sit-in and protest, blocking a bus outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in October. COURTESY OF ADRIAN GONZALEZ, ORANGE COUNTY DREAM TEAM
Young, undocumented students staged protests in Arizona and California last month, temporarily blocking buses from transporting detainees, including at this Oct. 17 protest in San Francisco. COURTESY OF ADRIAN GONZALEZ, ORANGE COUNTY DREAM TEAM
In this photo provided by the office of U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Lewis is arrested near the Capitol during the Camino Americano Rally for Immigrant Dignity and Respect on Oct. 8. ASSOCIATED PRESS

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